


Captious

by crmsndragonwngs



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Gen, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 21:25:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6724144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crmsndragonwngs/pseuds/crmsndragonwngs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“The time I spent on you went to waste.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captious

**Author's Note:**

> [Captious](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/captious) _adj_  
>  1\. apt to notice and make much of trivial faults or defects; faultfinding; difficult to please.

Arima Kishou does not know what this feeling is. He does not know what this tightness in his chest is supposed to be, and he does not know how to handle it.

So he doesn’t.

Or, at least he doesn’t do so consciously.

He attacks Sasaki with the blunt edge of his quinque, pushing him back, aiming to knock him down, to stun him, to make him stop. He attacks first because he doesn’t want to see Sasaki’s blood splattered across the floor. He attacks hard because Sasaki is strong and crashing into him is like slamming into a brick wall. There is so little give when they meet, and for a moment Arima is worried.

He’d trained him. He’d trained him well. And Sasaki had been a quick study, so easy for Arima to mold in his image, so open to criticism and eager to take on the mask of his superiors. It had truly been fortunate that Arima had been the one to cut down the Centipede. It had made a good investigator indeed, but only in the right hands. Only in Arima’s hands could the monster be molded into a soldier. A good soldier, just like he is.

Arima backs off suddenly, and Sasaki eyes him with the wariness of a wild animal. Arima sighs. Nothing to worry about after all.

He sees his protégé calculate, lean as though ready to move, then think better of it and remain still. Indecisive. Unsure. Arima attacks again.

He throws his shoulder into the blow and bumps Sasaki just off balance, forcing him to yield ground. He pushes him back and back again. Just enough, just enough. But Sasaki is determined. He flies forward, twisting to lash with his kagune, and when Arima sidesteps, bends at the knee to turn, he sees something flash in Sasaki’s eyes.

Ah. How foolish. He thinks he’s seen a pattern. Perhaps Arima hadn’t trained him as well as he’d thought.

Sasaki dashes, darts, aims his heel at Arima’s chest, but if he thought he knew the White Reaper’s method, then he’d been sorely mistaken. Or, at least mistaken in thinking Death could not read his opponent and adapt.

The movement is quick and fluid, more practiced than any of his blows so far, and Arima does not take a moment to wonder why Sasaki hadn’t seen it sooner. They’d only sparred before, certainly, aside from the initial incident, but Sasaki should understand Arima well enough to know that he prefers offense. And he has yet to truly engage offensively.

Until now.

He slices Sasaki’s legs off neatly below the knees, and the coil in his chest constricts painfully.

“Stop playing around.” He says, calmly, because he does not know what this feeling is, and he does not know how to deal with it. 

So he doesn’t.

“The time I spent on you went to waste.”

**Author's Note:**

> Practice piece. I like digging into and exploring Arima's mind. I wonder what Ishida-sensei has planned for us.
> 
> Awesome follow up piece [here](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/60459178) by [Kizaito_Hiruma](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizaito_Hiruma/pseuds/Kizaito_Hiruma)!! :D


End file.
